Anatomy Of A Carp Rig

A lot of my fishing is done with smaller food items – broken boilies, pellets and so on. When you watch fish feeding in the edge they will feed much more confidently on the smaller items, and in particular the boilies that have been broken into random shapes.

I want to re-create this feeding situation out in the pond, feeding this mix and using a hook bait that will match the freebies. The mix consists of Krill boilies all broken up, Bloodworm pellets and some Clusters. I then glaze it all up in some Pure Krill Liquid, which gives it all a really pungent kick.

With a mix like this, the best hook bait to match it all is a boilie. I like to have the bait balanced too, which makes a pop-up the ideal hook bait. I can chop and trim it to not only balance it, but also replicate the chopped baits that are my freebies.

To tie the rig, I use a length of Tungskin, which is a heavy coated braid, then strip some of the coating off and tie a knotless knot to a size 6 Thinking Anglers Curve Shank hook, but no hair. I trim the tag and add some shrink tube to the hook, then add a Hook Ring Swivel and a hook bead and shrink the tubing down.

I then add half a 16mm Krill Pop-up on to some floss, tie it on with a bait stop to secure it. This should sink nice and slowly, but if it is too buoyant I trim a little bit of pop-up off. I want it to sink slowly and sit like a claw, When you see the rig on the bottom, the bait covers the hook and it is incredibly low to the bottom, making it really subtle. With the bait being so light, it matches the freebies in appearance and weight. The small items are easy for the carp to suck in with minimal effort and the hook bait will behave the same.

To make sure everything stays tangle free, I hook on a small PVA bag of small pellets and powder. This also adds a small pile of attraction next to the hook bait and the fish can home in on it quickly should they come in to the spot.

Watch the video to see how to tie Jake's balanced claw rig.